The leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been forced to construct artificial water facilities for baptism due to illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, which has destroyed water bodies in the country.
Executive Secretary of the Northern Ghana Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Edward Nyarkoh, says the church can no longer baptize new converts in streams in areas affected by illegal mining because of increasing turbidity levels in water bodies across the country.
Speaking in an interview on Joy News on October 8, 2024, during the 40th-anniversary climax of the Bohyen Kropo branch of the SDA Church, he explained that galamsey is affecting their baptisms.
According to him, to avoid the risk of pastors and people who are supposed to be baptized coming into contact with contaminated water, they have built their baptisteries. "Galamsey has come to destroy all the water bodies, so it is also affecting our baptisms.